Making a new playground possible for Ninth Ward children, volunteers assemble equipment at Drew Elementary School in New Orleans.

The playground is a joint project between the national nonprofit organization KaBOOM! and the Partnership for an Active Community Environment at Tulane. (Photos by Deidre Boling)

Kids in the Upper Ninth Ward of New Orleans have a new place to play, thanks to a program spearheaded by the Partnership for an Active Community Environment (PACE), the core research project of the Prevention Research Center at Tulane University.

Neighborhood children can now use brand-new play structures at Dr. Charles R. Drew Elementary School after school and on weekends -- hours that most city schoolyards are closed and locked.

Researchers with PACE partnered with KaBOOM! to build the playground at the elementary school on St. Claude Avenue. A national nonprofit organization, KaBOOM! hopes to build a playground within walking distance of every child in America.

There were no usable playgrounds in the area surrounding Drew Elementary, and the school itself did not have any existing playground equipment. The schoolyard was an empty paved lot.

With the help of more than 400 volunteers, including staff and faculty of the Prevention Research Center at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, several colorful play structures were erected in only one day. Features of the playground include several slides, a rock-climbing wall, a climbing dome and a sandbox, all surrounded by protective wood mulch.

The playground is open two hours a day during the week and from three to four hours a day on weekends. The PACE project provides staffing for all hours that the playground is open. Playground monitors were drawn from teachers and staff at Drew and also Frederick Douglass High School across the street.

"These are people who really know the kids at the school and in the neighborhood, so we are confident that the kids will feel comfortable playing there," says Kate Parker, PACE program manager. Monitors, who receive a small stipend for their effort, observe the children at play, but will not lead activities.

All children have to provide a signed permission slip that they can get at the school office or on the PACE website.

"This is not childcare," stresses Parker. "Kids are free to come and go once the permission slip is signed."

The program will continue for one year, after which the PACE staff hopes the school can secure alternative funding to keep the program going.

The involvement of PACE in the project is an outgrowth of the group's research. Led by Jeannette Gustat, principal investigator, PACE is conducting a five-year intervention study of a defined area bounded by St. Claude, Elysian Fields, North Claiborne and Poland Avenues.

The study will compare physical activity levels in the neighborhood, contrasting initial results with interim and concluding results after two interventions, and a cadre of lay health advisers has been introduced into the neighborhood. Similar surveys will be conducted in two comparison neighborhoods where no interventions are taking place.

Deirdre Boling is communications and training coordinator in the Prevention Research Center at Tulane University.